Rating: 
Summary: hilarious and true
Review: Comedian Al Franken highlights several myths and falsehoods spun by the administration, Fox, and others. I learned something about the Murdoch "news" organization, Clinton's anti-terrorism efforts, and the media biases, among other things. Frankly, some of the right leaning commentators could try to insert some humor in their topics. I've read Coulter's books and one thing they are not is funny unless you consider calling Arabs smelly humorous. Anyway, Franken's support of the war on Iraq (prior to the war), which I also had, is not the extreme left line and his comments now on the subject are enlightening and parallel to mine. Anyway, it's a fun take on some serious issues. Not a serious political tome, but your money is not wasted if you buy this book.
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Summary: Team Franken goes to war
Review: Comedian/political satirist Al Franken takes on the conservative media establishment with his fifth book "Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" (Dutton, 2003). It is a 379-page tome that examines what Franken says are the litany of lies that right-wing entertainers, who indirectly receive their marching orders from conservative politicians, lobbyists and corporate owners, disseminate into society. For "Lies", Franken employed a staff of Harvard University students, also known as "Team Franken", to dig through right-wing entertainers' comments through their own books, radio and television appearances, newspaper archives and Lexis-Nexis searches - which provide television and radio transcripts. Through these techniques, Franken literally dissects every utterance. Franken shows how rumor or gossip is born in the dominant right-wing media culture. "Lies" also takes apart the liberal media bias myth by shredding apart Rush Limbaugh and his copycats' claim that conservative media balances out mainstream media. Franken argues that there is a serious right-wing bias in The Wall Street Journal editorial page, The Washington Times, The National Review and of course, The Fox News Network. He believes their wrath is more powerful than most media and is mostly responsible for the current state of the union.
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Summary: Comedians are funny to watch and borrish to read.
Review: Comedians who's lines were written by Al Franken on Saturday Night Live, became greatly admired by three generations of TV watchers. Mr. Franken's comical lines were amuzing to watch, but never taken seriously. Al's view on reality could never be applied to the real world, except for those free citizens who blindly follow such liberal madness to their grave (e.g Adolf Hitler, Lenin, Rousseau etc). Citizen comedian writer, Al Franken, now, believing his own writings to be of some significant social/political value is boorish, not even to be taken as laughable, having moved from "Saturday Night Live" TV show to "Real World Editorials." It is simply comical to think that a comedians imagination can ever be a source of reliable truth. To top that Mr. Franken's attempt to try to convince the thinking population of the world, that those who seek the truth, tell lies, and are merely lying liars - is an ill conceived premise of poor logic. Has Hitler, Lenin, the current French Government, Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or even Al Franken ever told the world the truth. What a Joke! What liberal Madness! The cure for this disease of Lying is simply laugh at Al Franken's Book, don't buy it! But if you must, the Joke is on you. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
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Summary: hope god hits him with a bolt of lightning
Review: Complete moronic drivel from a comedian trying to be intelligent about things other than stuart smalley...
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Summary: Viva Al!
Review: Concerning the reviews for this book: Does anybody else notice the striking inverse correlation of spelling/grammatical mistakes with the amount of stars given?
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Summary: Regarding reviews regarding other reviews
Review: Concerning the statement: "Concerning the reviews for this book: Does anybody else notice the striking inverse correlation of spelling/grammatical mistakes with the amount of stars given?" No. You're deluded.
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Summary: Al Franken, a father, a son, a husband, a POLITICAL GENIUS!!
Review: Congrats Mr. Franken!!! You have written one hell of a book here. I have to say when I bought it I wasn't quite sure what to expect from it. But looking back after reading it I must say it was $25.00 well spent. Infact after reading this book I went out and bought your other two books, which I must say were equally as good as this one. Just yesterday I went down to the courthouse in my small little town an changed myself over to a Democrat!!!! THANKS AL!!!! We here in KY are pulling for ya!
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Summary: Superlative Work By A Model Free-Market Capitalist
Review: Congratulations are due Al Franken for the success of this immensely popular book, which (along with the volume about Rush Limbaugh) has shown him to be a shining example of the American dream. Possessing little, and coming from a disadvantaged background to which Mr. Franken sometimes refers, he has through creativity and energy tapped into a lucrative reader market and vaulted into the thin ranks of best-selling authors. His work -- his lonely work as a creative writer, his initiative as a commentator -- has produced for him a fortune, and he may now proudly consider himself a successful rich American. His toil has made him wealthy beyond the dreams of most of us, and rightfully so -- Mr. Franken fully deserves every penny of the funds that people have paid voluntarily for access to his humor and commentary. Mr. Franken never begged, or complained to the government or demanded any sort of subsidy or bail-out -- rather, he got to work, found a market for his abilities, took charge of his own life, became self-reliant, and grew very wealthy. Everyone in our nation should emulate this concept, and do as Mr. Franken did: Get to work for yourself, produce something legal/honorable that other people like, and reap the profits therefrom. Congratulations, Mr. Franken: It is the motivated individuals like YOU who prove that American-style, free-market, profit-seeking, laissez-faire capitalism is the greatest economic system ever devised by humans. While Al Franken doesn't preach it, he definitely LIVES it.
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Summary: Mediocre comedian makes good by ticking off Bill O' Reilly.
Review: Congratulations! Not a hard thing to do, considering O' Reilly is Al Franken's gas-filled twin on the Right. But really, who are these people who think it's a good book? A friend gave me a copy and it wasn't as grand as it's hyped to be. The real problem with Al is that he's as shrill as many of his pals, and unfortunately it's only getting worse with each election. What, he couldn't top Stuart Smalley? Not very enlightening or entertaining. Wait to get this at a used bookstore if you want a better deal, you won't feel as ripped.
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Summary: Accuracy and ridicule
Review: Conservatives will detest the book; liberals will love it. But the mixture of documented lies and ridicule makes it a unique book. These documented lies and the anger they produce needed to be expressed and Franken "is OK and people like him." I am reminded of Nietzsche's remark: If you cannot disprove a thing, ridicule it so much that it can no longer be taken seriously." Franken's documentation plus the ridicule make it a great cocktail.
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